They would ask me what actors I saw in the roles. I would tell them, and they’d say “Oh that’s interesting.” And that would be the end of it.
--Elmore Leonard, in 2000, on the extent of his input for Hollywood's adaptation of his novels

Friday, April 8, 2016

Alex Gordon's "Jericho"

Kristine Smith is the author of the Jani Kilian series and other science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories under her own name. As Alex Gordon, she has written the supernatural thrillers Gideon and Jericho.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of the books as a miniseries:

Jericho is a supernatural thriller with a horror chaser. It continues the story of Lauren Reardon, who was first introduced in Gideon (2015). Over the course of the books, Lauren is coming to grips with the fact that she is the latest in a long line of witches and that the world is a very different place than what she has grown up believing it to be.

Ideally, the books would be filmed together, as a single season miniseries. I have no clue who should direct, but they would need to prefer a low-key approach to horror and prize character over kabooms! I am guessing that anyone who has directed episodes of The Walking Dead, The Expanse, or a number of other cable series would do well.

In keeping with the supernatural flavor, the actors chosen can be living or dead, and if necessary will be age-adjusted to suit.

Lauren Reardon—a 30-something Sandra Bullock. Lauren is an outdoorsy woman who enjoys kayaking, backwoods camping, rock climbing. Girl-next-door attractive, and very down-to-earth. Bullock appeals to me in those respects. She’s always struck me as someone you could run into at the local drugstore or mini-mart and have a friendly, funny no-drama conversation with. But there’s a toughness there, and a sense that something happened to her that she simply does not discuss with anyone.

A couple of characters who make their first entrances in Gideon:

Virginia Waycross—quiet, no-nonsense, spine of steel and work-roughened hands. A 60ish Billie Whitelaw. Maybe her turn as Mrs. Blaylock in The Omen stuck with me, or maybe it’s just her sharp-boned face, but she’s who I see in straight-legged jeans and a man’s shirt, talking to her horses over the fence as she casts her wards.

Leaf Cateman was always, always John Huston. His Noah Cross in Chinatown made an indelible impression—the powerful patriarch who convinces himself that everything he does is justified.

Moving on to characters who make their first appearances in Jericho:

Gene Kaster—my initial vision was of a 40ish Willem Dafoe, and though I’ve cycled through Lee Pace and Eric Roberts, I keep going back to Dafoe. No matter who else is on screen with him, he draws the camera, the eye. There’s charm there that can flick over to menace in a blink of an eye, and a hint of the strange in that angular face.

Andrew Carmody is a mogul in the guise of a surfer dude. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau does rich rumpled very well.

Peter Augustin—Orlando Jones, who I first saw as Captain Frank Irving in Sleepy Hollow. He can project a world-weary decency that reminds me of a younger Morgan Freeman or Harry Morgan.

“Compared to a novel, a film is like an economy pizza where there are no olives, no ham, no anchovies, no mushrooms, and all you’ve got is the dough.”
--Louis de Bernières, author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin